Narrowcasting

Narrowcasting has traditionally been understood as the dissemination of information (usually via Internet, radio, or television) to a narrow audience; not to the broader public at-large. Also called niche marketing or target marketing, narrowcasting involves aiming media messages at specific segments of the public defined by values, preferences, demographic attributes, and/or subscription. Narrowcasting is based on the postmodern idea that mass audiences do not exist. While the first uses of the term appeared within the context of subscription radio programs in the late 1940s, the term first entered the common lexicon due to computer scientist and public broadcasting advocate J. C. R.

… to suburban men who drive F150 pickups and shop at Cabelas and Bass Pro Shops every month? Which raises the question, why target, if you can’t deliver an intelligent message. In my county, we faced a proposition that sought to limit oil development and production. Without getting into the details, the messages that were shouted were binary…

… was helping them to accelerate the buying process. I know this probably appears like ancient history to internet marketers and video content producers. But, these insights into special-interest magazines and endemic advertising enabled Ziff-Davis to flourish at a time when general-interest magazines were struggling to compete against television. In other words, Ziff-Davis was narrowcasting successfully in an era when other print media weren’t broadcasting as cost-effectively as network TV could. …